Warning: There’s a major security flaw in Flash and you need to update immediately

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before… dozens of times. A very serious security flaw has been discovered in Adobe Flash and millions of users are impacted. The zero-day vulnerability allows hackers to exploit the flaw and crash a user’s system, or even take control of the system and steal private data.

It’s one of the most serious types of flaws out there and in this case the vulnerability is being actively exploited by hackers. In other words, this isn’t some tiny bug discovered by researchers and handled privately with Adobe behind closed doors. Hackers are using the security hole to attack users as you read this — and now Adobe has released an update to patch the flaw.

Here’s what you need to know: All desktop versions of Adobe Flash player are affected, including builds for Windows, OS X and Linux. So basically, if you have a computer you need to install the update.

Product

Affected Versions

Platform

Adobe Flash Player Desktop Runtime

21.0.0.197 and earlier

Windows and Macintosh

Adobe Flash Player Extended Support Release

18.0.0.333 and earlier

Windows and Macintosh

Adobe Flash Player for Google Chrome

21.0.0.197 and earlier

Windows, Macintosh, Linux and ChromeOS

Adobe Flash Player for Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11

21.0.0.197 and earlier

Windows 10

Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer 11

21.0.0.197 and earlier

Windows 8.1

Adobe Flash Player for Linux

11.2.202.577 and earlier

Linux

How can you update? You can use the update mechanism on your computer, or you’ll find direct downloads and alternative options here: